Titolo originale : 8 Mile.

Regia : Curtis Hanson.

Genere : Drammatico/Biografico.

Cast : Kim Basinger (Stephanie Smith), Eminem (Jimmy Smith Jr.), Brittany Murphy (Alex), Mekhi Phifer (David Porter "Future"), Eugene Byrd (Wink), Omar Benson Miller (Sol), Taryn Manning (J).

Distribuzione : Il film è distribuito dalla "Universal Pictures" e prodotto dalla "Imagine Entertainment" (Uscita USA: 8 Novembre 2002). La sceneggiatura è di Scott Silver. In Italia il film è distribuito dalla "UIP" (Uscita Italia: 14 Marzo 2003). In video negli USA dal 18 marzo 2003.

Passaggi televisivi : Il film è stato trasmesso in prima TV da Italia 1 in data 19.12.2005 (2.387.000 spettatori, share: 9,37%).

Disponibilità : Disponibili DVD e VHS sia in USA che in Italia (Universal).

 

	1) Lose yourself (Eminem)
	2) Love me (Obie Trice/Eminem/50Cent)
	3) 8 Mile (Eminem)
	4) Adrenaline Rush (Obie Trice)
	5) Places to go (50 Cent)
	6) Rap game (D12)
	7) 8 Miles and runnin' (Jay Z/Freeway)
	8) Spit Shine (Xzibit)
	9) Time of my life (Macy Gray)
	10) U Wanna be me (Nas)
	11) Wanksta (50 Cent)
	12) Wasting my time (BOOMKAT - Taryn Manning)
	13) R.A.K.I.M (Rakim)
	14) That's my nigga fo' real (Joung Zee)
	15) Battle (Gangstarr)
	16) Rabbit run (Eminem)

Questa la track list della SPECIAL EDITION:

 

	1) Rap Name (Obie Trice)
	2) Stimulate (Eminem)
	3) 'Til I collapse Freestyle (50 Cent)
	4) Gangsta (Joe Beast)
	5) The Weekend (Brooklyn)
	6) California (Shaunta)

Questa la track list di MORE MUSIC FROM 8 MILE:

 

	1) Shook ones (Mobb Deep)
	2) Juicy (Notorius Big)
	3) Gotta get mine (Mc Breed/Tupac)
	4) Feel me flow (Naughty by nature)
	5) Player's ball (Outkast)
	6) Get money (Junior Mafia)
	7) You're all I need (Method man/Mary J. Blige)
	8) Temptations (Tupac)
	9)Shimmy Shimmy ya (Ol' Dirty Bastard)
	10) Bring da pain (Method man)
	11) C.R.E.A.M (Wu-tang clan)
	12) Runnin' (Pharcyde)
	13) Survival of the fittest (Mobb Deep)

Classificazione : Data la presenza della controversa star Eminem, il film è classificato "R".

Altri titoli : Working Title - "Untitled Eminem Detroit Project". Il titolo di lavorazione "Fight Song" è mutato dal 07/11/2001 in "Fight Music". Durante il mese di dicembre 2001 il titolo è ulteriormente cambiato in "8 Mile", che richiama la famosa "8 Mile Road" di Detroit che segna il confine tra la città bianca e nera. Il film è uscito in Brasile col titolo "Rua da Ilusões", in Spagna col titolo "8 Millas".

La storia : A young rapper (Eminem) in Detroit struggles with his anger through music. Can a white kid with a blue vocabulary and lots of hate in his heart transcend his meager beginnings and attain global superdupermegastar success? (Ribisi plays one of Eminem's rapping buddies; Murphy plays his girlfriend; Basinger plays Eminem's Mom).

Curiosità : Alcune curiosità sul film :

	Il working title del film è "Untitled Eminem Detroit Project", poi cambiato in "Fight Song".
	Se Kim Basinger (08/12/1953) fosse veramente stata la madre di Eminem (17/10/1972), avrebbe avuto 18 anni in quel periodo.
	Il film è basato sulla vita del rapper Marshall "Eminem" Mathers III, anche se i nomi utilizzati nel film e la storia in parte differiscono dalla realtà dei fatti.
	Il personaggio di "Wink" originariamente affidato a Giovanni Ribisi è successivamente passato a Eugene Byrd.
	Frasi di lancio: "Find you voice" - "Every moment is another chance".
	il budget del film è pari a $ 50,000,000.

Incassi : Il film è costato $ 50,000,000. Incasso complessivo USA: $ 116.750.901 (sale 2.585), week end di apertura - $ 51,240,555 (sale 2.470). Incasso italiano: € 7.185.886 (# 19 della TOP 100 stagione 2002/2003, 363 CITTA' - 7.108 GIORNI - 1.162.530 SPETTATORI). Incasso mondiale globale: $ 242,233,074. Incasso Non-Us: $ 125,488,704.

Interviste : Interviste del cast:

Curtis Hanson (Variety, 05/06/2001): "I saw here an opportunity to make a serious movie about the emotional struggles of contemporary adolescents in this country. This captures the angst, insecurity, frustration and anger, search for direction and identity. That to me what the best version of this movie is all about".

Giudizi : Alcuni giudizi sul film :

Upcomingmovies : "With Curtis Hanson making this his choice to follow up Wonder Boys and L.A. Confidential, it begs the question... are we going to see Eminem performing at the Academy Awards in 2003? I think that when Universal announced in 2000 that they had acquired the film rights to Eminem's life story (which is being loosely adapted here), most people scoffed it off as Cool as Ice II. Vanilla Ice, however, went the action route, and didn't have a director of Hanson's reputation backing him up (let's just ignore the Mod Squad ties... for now). Hanson's participation, then, ups the ante, putting this forth as a serious teen drama exploring what makes someone spout such ferocious lyrics. Eminem is hardly doing anything new; fierce and sometimes hateful lyrics have been found in counterculture musical genres like punk and rap since the 1970's, but few of those groups attained the level of success Eminem has. And those few that did were mostly rap artists, and (I think is crucial here) not white. Rap's more eruptive side has been popular with suburban white kids for over a decade now, but Eminem reminds the mainstream that this is an artform not to be relegated to the "other side of the tracks." One might not agree with the nature and content of his raps but their existence inspires a curiosity about how they came to be... and so, here we are with Hanson's next film. Curtis Hanson, with L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys, graduated to a new level from his previous films, mostly thrillers. Those last two films sent his camera into very specific environments, with their own slangs and secret codes (ie, the LAPD of the 1950's and the ivy-coated walls of American academia). Now, he's turning off into a whole new direction, looking at the equally unique world of hip-hop and its attendant youth culture, specifically in this case, in Detroit, a city that's been thru the wringer more than a few times itself".

News : Notizie sulla lavorazione del film :

	Yahoo News : "LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Academy Award winner Kim Basinger is in negotiations to star in Universal Pictures' "The Untitled Detroit Project" for director Curtis Hanson and Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer. Shooting begins Oct. 18 in Detroit and stars multiplatinum recording artist Eminem (news - web sites) in his first feature acting debut. The project reteams Basinger with Hanson, both of whom worked on 1998's "L.A. Confidential," for which Basinger won a supporting actress Oscar and Hanson earned an Oscar for adapted screenplay. Hanson also directed and produced the film. "Detroit" is described as an honest but provocative fictional examination of a critical month in the life of a young man named Jimmy (Eminem) as he searches for identity and a sense of purpose. Against the familiar backdrop of indifference and community decay, he learns to express his anger, fears and frustration as he struggles to transcend his bleak circumstances. Basinger will play Jimmy's mother. Eugene Byrd ("Dead Man") has also been cast in the project to play a black rapper named Wink, who on the surface seems to be Jimmy's friend. Giovanni Ribisi was previously being eyed to play the role, originally written as a Caucasian character , but the role has since been reconfigured, and Byrd is firmly on board to play him. Mekhi Phifer and Brittany Murphy round out the cast as Jimmy's best friend and girlfriend, respectively. Scott Silver wrote the screenplay for "Detroit," which is being produced by Grazer, Hanson and Interscope Records' Jimmy Iovine. Eminem will collaborate with Dr. Dre on music for the film, which will feature a soundtrack from Interscope. Basinger, repped by CAA, next stars opposite Al Pacino in the indie feature "People I Know." Her recent credits include "Bless the Child" and "I Dreamed of Africa." Byrd is repped by the Gersh Agency and Creative Management Group's Edie Robb. He next stars in the WB Network series "For Your Love," slated for midseason, and the indie feature "Lift," which Showtime recently picked up for distribution".
	Upcomingmovies : "According to The Hollywood Reporter, Giovanni Ribisi is now in talks to costar as Wink, one of Eminem's rapping friends. In addition to the news from The Hollywood Reporter that Mekhi Phifer ("O") and Brittany Murphy (Don't Say a Word) have joined the cast, there is also going to be a casting call in Detroit this weekend. Find out more at WiredFrog.com). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kim Basinger is now in advanced talks to reunite with her L.A. Confidential director in the role of Eminem's mother".
	IMDB News : "Kim Basinger is taking on the role of Eminem's mother in the forthcoming film based loosely around the rap star's life. The part in The Untitled Detroit Project will see beautiful Basinger team up again with filmmaker Curtis Hanson, the man who directed her in 1997's L.A. Confidential, for which she picked up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Filming will begin in Detroit later this month. The much-anticipated project will be the movie debut of Eminem, real name Marshal Mathers III, and is described as "as an honest but provocative fictional examination of a critical month in the life of a young man named Jimmy as he searches for identity and a sense of purpose". It is unclear how closely Eminem's fictional relationship with Basinger will mirror his feuding relationship with his own mother Debbie Mathers".
	Mr Showbiz : "It's been a tough four years for Kim Basinger, who's gone from an Oscar-winning turn opposite Russell Crowe in 1997's L.A. Confidential to box-office duds like I Dreamed of Africa and Bless the Child to — are we reading this right? — a role as bad-boy rapper Eminem's mom. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Curtis Hanson, who directed Basinger to her Oscar in L.A. Confidential, is bravely helming the feature-film debut of the Detroit-bred, foul-mouthed rapper, and wants Basinger to play Slim Shady's mother. Call us crazy, but this doesn't seem like the way to a second Oscar to us. The Untitled Detroit Project, as it's being called for now, stars Eminem as "Jimmy," an apparently fictionalized version of his own bad-boy self. The Grammy-winning rapper will collaborate with Dr. Dre on the music for the film, which will feature a soundtrack from Interscope. Eugene Byrd (Dead Man), Mekhi Phifer (O), and Brittany Murphy (Don't Say a Word) round out the cast. Basinger's film prospects aren't all bleak however: she'll also be seen in the already-wrapped Al Pacino film People I Know".
	BBC News : "Curtis Hanson, the man behind LA Confidential and Wonder Boys, has agreed to direct controversial rapper Eminem's film debut. Hanson will direct the fictional feature about a troubled Detroit rapper's life, and described Eminem as "an extraordinarily gifted artist". He said the script was the best he had read since Wonder Boys - which he turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Michael Douglas. Eminem, whose hits have included Stan and The Real Slim Shady, is from Detroit and has had numerous well-documented trials and tribulations. "Helping him adapt his talents to the screen is one of the things about this project that excites me," Hanson told Variety magazine. "Working with actors is what I like best about directing and Eminem is an extraordinarily gifted artist, one who's already shown an ability to project personas and identities." Similarities The film - which has not yet been named - will feature Eminem in the role of a troubled youngster who finds his voice through hip-hop. But despite the similarities, the plot will not be based on Eminem's life. "This story will only be as good as Eminem's performance, not how good he is as a musical performer but how he good he is dramatically," Hanson said. It is an opportunity to make a serious movie about the emotional struggles of American youth, he added. "This captures the angst, insecurity, frustration and anger, search for direction and identity. That to me is what the best version of this movie is all about. "Detroit has historically been the industrial centre of the country, and it's perfect for a look at kids flailing about, with an apparent lack of opportunity, no place to go and no support, with a lack of structure and family support and apparent hopelessness. "It's somehow universal, with people finding a way to express themselves.'' Jimmy Iovine, president of Interscope Records, Eminem's record label, will co-produce the film. "If you get beyond the vulgarity and to the heartbeat of [Eminem's] lyrics, they are about really powerful subjects," Iovine said. Life story "Curtis thrives on challenging different genres." The film's scriptwriter, Scott Silver, will have had to work hard to make his plot match Eminem's real life story. Born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, he settled in Detroit at the age of 12 and took up rap at 14. He found international success with the single My Name Is in 1999 - a song whose lyrics "my mom smokes more dope than I do" prompted his mother to launch a $10m (£7m) lawsuit against him.His wife Kimberly attempted suicide in July 2000, and the pair have made several failed attempts at reconciliation since. He was recently sentenced to two years' probation for carrying a concealed weapon and will appear in court on another gun charge on 5 June".
	Yahoo News : "Surrounded by abandoned buildings, littered streets and other signs of blight, hundreds of fledgling rappers and aspiring actors filled the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences Saturday and Sunday hoping for the chance to appear in a film loosely based on the life of rapper Eminem. "We are all representin' what's goin' on right here in Detroit. I want us to be known too," said Lamar Byther, who applied to be an extra on Sunday in Detroit, Michigan. With gold chains hanging outside the sports jersey he was wearing, Byther is hoping that if he is chosen for the film, it will boost the career of his Detroit rap group Last Chance. The as-of-yet-untitled film, dubbed Untitled Detroit Project, is set to star Eminem as "Jimmy" in the fictional tale of a Caucasian rapper. Brittany Murphy (Girl Interrupted, Don't Say a Word) plays his girlfriend "Alex," and Mekhi Phifer (O) is his friend, "Future." Curtis Hanson, who directed L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys, has been tapped to direct Untitled Detroit Project. Giovanni Ribisi has been reported to have joined the project as "Wink," a Caucasian rapper, but a spokeswoman at Universal Studios in California said that is unconfirmed. The non-union movie, which will begin shooting in mid-October, will be filmed entirely in Detroit. According to the casting call notice, directors were looking for men and women of all ethnicities, ages eighteen and older, for extras and featured roles. They were also seeking factory workers, truckers and a "ragamuffin Caucasian girl" ages five to eight who is "serious with soulful eyes." Owners of cars produced in 1995 or earlier were being sought. In the movie, according to casting director Deedee Ricketts, "the hero's car" is reportedly breaking down on the way to rap events. After filling out application cards, potential extras were taken in the academy's gymnasium where Ricketts (Training Day, Hardball), the extras casting director, offered few details about the movie. No one attached to the film, save for Hanson, was mentioned. Earlier in the week, casting directors sought out "young hip-hop kids who can dance" at the Wired Frog Coffeehouse in Eastpointe, Michigan. Several rap groups performed twenty-minute sets from 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the all-ages club".
	Freep : "Eminem, the controversial rapper who brought platinum record sales as well as notoriety back to Detroit's music scene, is bringing the movies back to the city as well. A source close to the production said that "Untitled Detroit Project," a drama loosely based on Marshall Mathers III's ascent from suburban Detroit hip-hop fanatic to superstar, will begin shooting in and around Detroit in September. Imagine Films, producing the film for distribution through Universal Studios, will open a Detroit production office in early August, the source said. A spokesman for Universal confirmed the report. Michigan Film Office Director Janet Lockwood said that, although she has yet to receive official confirmation that the film will be made here, her conversations with producer Greg Goodman and director Curtis Hanson have been very positive. Lockwood said Tuesday that the filmmakers told her they wanted to shoot the entire film here. Some of the film will be shot in New York, however, where a casting call has already gone out, according to the source close to the project. Though the film is officially listed on Universal's production slate as "Untitled Detroit Project," the source said there was some pressure from Universal to film it in Toronto, where Canadian tax incentives and the favorable exchange rate would have reduced an estimated $50-million budget. But Eminem and director Hanson, the source said, insisted that the film be made in Detroit to ensure authenticity. Scripts that have been sent out to potential cast members bear the title "Fight Song." The script uses the outline of Eminem's life to tell a story of a white rapper overcoming prejudice, poverty and his own anger as he fights his way to fame. Two people who have read the script said there is enough violence and profanity in it to ensure an R rating. The script was written by Scott Silver, whose credits include the movie version of "The Mod Squad." Filming is expected to be completed by mid-December, although it is unclear how that would be divided between New York and Detroit. Hanson and Eminem have scouted a number of Detroit locations, Lockwood said, though none have been officially confirmed. The film could be released by next summer. It is to be accompanied by a soundtrack album with at least four new songs written by Eminem and Dr. Dre, as well as rerecorded versions of Eminem hits. The film and soundtrack are also expected to feature an appearance by Eminem's group D12. Representatives of Eminem did not return calls to discuss the film. "Untitled Detroit Project" would be the first major-studio film to spend substantial time filming in Detroit since "Out of Sight," a crime drama based on Elmore Leonard's novel. It was shot here in 1997. Lockwood said there remains a good possibility that "Dreamcatcher," directed by former Detroiter Lawrence Kasdan, will be filmed in the Upper Peninsula this winter".
	HSX : "When his debut album released in the summer of 2000, rapper Eminem became one of the most controversial musician. Now, the young rapper will star in a feature which closely matches his life story. Fight Song, from Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, is about a young man growing up in a rough Detroit neighborhood with an unique talent for music and an exceptional rap style. Eminem, who was Marshall Mathers growing up in Detroit, will also perform his own music in the movie. Critically acclaimed director Curtis Hanson will helm from a script by Scott Silver (The Mod Squad). Hanson was awarded the Oscar for his screenwriting work on L.A. Confidential and most recently directed and produced Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas".
	The Z Review : "It had to happen sooner or later but this is not another film that's being put together for the sake of quickly making a Hollywood studio millions of the back of a current 'hot' star. Sure the thought must be at the back of their minds, but Eminem has a pretty colourful past and after watching a documentary of the controversial rapper's life on MTV the other week, I actually thought to myself, hey, this would make one hell of a movie. There's even an Oscar winning director attached too at the moment in the form of Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential and Wonderboys). The film will be distributed by Universal and produced by (surprisingly) Imagine Entertainment. Eminem is to play himself in the film, although his character may go by another name. Hardcore rap outfit D12, of which Eminem is also a member, will also appear. A Detroit shoot is penciled in for September of this year and Universal will open a production office in Detroit sometime during August. The 'Untitled Detroit Project' as it is currently known will be the first major movie since Out Of Sight to be shot in the Motor City. Both Eminem and Dr. Dre are to write at least four new tracks for the movie's soundtrack which will be released early next year. Eminem will also re-record some his previous hits".
	Yahoo News : "NEW YORK (Variety) - After a monthlong courtship by Universal Pictures, Curtis Hanson has agreed to take a surprising turn by directing Eminem in his acting debut -- a feature project about a young rapper. While Hanson's two most recent pictures, ``L.A. Confidential'' and ``Wonder Boys,'' were not financial blockbusters, they drew critical kudos that put him at the front of the line for plum scripts and top actors. Hanson said he chose the project because the script from Silver (''The Mod Squad'') had more power and potential than anything he'd read since Steve Kloves' adaptation of ``Wonder Boys.'' ``I saw here an opportunity to make a serious movie about the emotional struggles of contemporary adolescents in this country,'' said Hanson. ``This captures the angst, insecurity, frustration and anger, search for direction and identity. That to me is what the best version of this movie is all about.'' The picture's protagonist is, like Eminem, a troubled kid from Detroit who finds his voice in hip-hop. The story and embellishments are fictional. ``Detroit has historically been the industrial center of the country, and it's perfect for a look at kids flailing about, with an apparent lack of opportunity, no place to go and no support, with a lack of structure and family support and apparent hopelessness,'' said Hanson. ``It's somehow universal, with people finding a way to express themselves.'' Imagine Entertainment principal Brian Grazer, who will produce, said, ``If you get beyond the vulgarity and to the heartbeat of the lyrics, they are about really powerful subjects. Curtis thrives on challenging different genres.'' Interscope Records president Jimmy Iovine will also be a producer. Hanson was unconcerned that Eminem's notoriety and his newness to acting would weigh down the film. ``Working with actors is what I like best about directing and Eminem is an extraordinarily gifted artist, one who's already shown an ability to project personas and identities,'' said Hanson. ``Helping him adapt his talents to the screen is one of the things about this project that excites me, so it's a positive, not a negative. This story will only be as good as Eminem's performance, not how good he is as a musical performer but how he good he is dramatically.'' Noting the strong work of rappers-turned-actors such as LL Cool J, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube, Hanson said he believes Eminem will rise to the challenge as well. Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers) has been a lightning rod for controversy particularly from his foulmouthed lyrics and legal miscues. The notoriety, though, has had several studios vying for his acting services in villain roles -- Warner Bros. is said to be circling a proposed pairing with rapper DMX in a drama called Lazarus".

Data d'uscita : Le riprese sono iniziate il 18 ottobre 2001 a Detroit e successivamente proseguite a New York. Uscita prevista: 8 novembre 2002.

Recensioni : 

	Script Review di TNMC : Marshall Mathers. His work ignites a passionate reaction from everybody. He has been called a musical genius while others have dubbed him everything that is wrong with today's society. His homophobic remarks, his explicit sexual references and his hymns to killing his wife have made Eminem the most controversial musical artist of the moment. His last album sold 10 millions copies in the States, while his group D-12's first album was #1 the week it was released. He's no Vanilla Ice and he seems to be here to stay. In the spring of 2000, not long after the standout debut of The Marshall Mathers LP, plans begun for him to jump-start his movie career. Scott Silver (The Mod Squad) was hired to write a script that would showcase Eminem's unique style. Loosely based on how he broke into the business, the project was going ahead. Then it got strange, Academy Award nominee Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, Wonderboys) climbed on board the project to direct it. It was put on a fast track and the film began shooting a month ago in Detroit for a Summer 2002 release. The script I will be reviewing is dated April 27th, 2001 and it's the first rewrite draft. The script mentions that the title is Fight Music. According to Daily Variety, there have been rewrites since by screenwriter Jesse Wigutow.  We first meet Jimmy Smith Jr. aka B-Rabbit (Eminem) in a desolate bathroom of The Shelter, a hip hop club, having sex with a blonde girl. He's at the club to 'battle' with fellow rappers. The 'battles' are hosted by his best friend David Porter aka The Future (Mekhi Phifer). The concept of a 'battle' is a sixty second contest between two rappers who freestyle. It's fight music. Jimmy's first battle is a disaster where he remains speechless for the duration of his turn. Afterwards we begin to see Jimmy's life. He works as a bellboy in an hotel. He lost his car to his ex-girlfriend and he has to go back to stay with his mom Stephanie (Kim Basinger) and half-sister Lily. She's the perfect definition of poor white trash. Her abusive boyfriend is no older then Jimmy and they live in a trailer. The rest of the movie deals with Jimmy's quest for a record deal, redemption for his early battle disaster and his trials and tribulations to get out of 'the ghetto'. Along the way we meet the sexy Alex (Brittany Murphy), his crew RU486 and the shady Winks (Eugene Byrd) with his dream of recording a demo at Paisley Park with Prince. Oh yeah and remember to add a good dose of SEX, DRUGS and VIOLENCE. I see this script as only the blueprint for the film. A lot of the final product we see next year will have to do with the musical numbers. I lost count of how many there are, but it's close to a dozen. All sorts of numbers. One that stuck in my mind was the Singin' in the Rain homage. Jimmy and Alex are on their way back from work and it's raining hard. He gets splashed by a car and he just begins to sing to impress her. Another good moment takes place in the hotel's kitchen where he does battle with a female cook for a hamburger. I'm curious to see who they pick to play that character. My vote is for Eve. At one point, Jimmy's imagination takes over and it becomes an animation sequence. It features Super-Jimmy who does what Jimmy only dreams of doing. Getting back at a rude customer, winning a battle and screwing the girl etc... Those sequences are well placed and should be a nice diversion from the grim tone of the film. This movie can be seriously called a hip hop musical. Scott Silver has done an incredible job with this script. All that needs to be added is the music. I don't think we will be disappointed in that department. JIMMY - It's my birthday in a couple of weeks - An' It's like, I gotta do somethin', ya know? Somethin' real. I mean all I ever wanted to do was rap, yo - be an emcee. It's like do or die time for me now. We have never really seen Eminem act before, so we do not know if he's talented or not. He has to be good to make this movie work. His character is so well constructed that if he fails, the entire film will sink. The persona and motivations of Jimmy are well constructed in the script. Scott Silver did a good job of showing off Jimmy's world and explaining what is wrong with it. He can't stand it anymore. His motivation are very well developed and I seriously believed in his character. Will Eminem make us believe in him too? STEPHANIE -  I gave 'im that nickname. When he was little he had these buck teeth and big ears and he was so cute, wike a wittle rabbit - When we first meet Stephanie, she's riding her boyfriend. Wait, it doesn't stop there. Later on, she tells her son (Eminem) that sexually it's not working with her boyfriend. He doesn't want to go down on her. I am not kidding. How messed-up can it get? I don't think we have ever seen Kim Basinger play a character like this one. It's the trailer park mom stereotype at its finest. She doesn't have a job, smokes, drinks heavily, and like to go play bingo. Those requirements have never been seen in Basinger's repertoire. But I doubt she will have any problems pulling that role off. Will I go as far and predict a nomination? I'm not that crazy, it's a freaking Eminem film. Those Academy members will have a heart attack within the first five minutes of this flick.  FUTURE - I had a lotta names, baby - The most jealous names. I used to be called Maximum, Brimstone, Godfather D - None of 'em worked, youknowwhatImsayin'? 'Til one day someone said I was the future of hip-hop in Detroit. And that was it.  Mekhi Phifer could possibly steal the movie from under Eminem. His role of Future, the host of the battles, is funny and interesting. 'Fuche' is Jimmy's best friend but his loyalty is put to the test. He tries to help his friend but he gets turned down. He's one of my favorite supporting players of the script. I have no worries that Mekhi can play this role in his sleep. ALEX - And I know that look 'cause I used to have have this "I'm better than you attitude" that made me like a real bitch. But I'm not gonna be doing this that long ya know. I can hardly wait to get outta this s***thole before I kill somebody - There's not much to her character beside the way she is introduced. The script refers to her as 'The Honey-Dipped Girl'. Never heard anyone being called that before in a film but it seriously caught my attention. Is Brittany "I'll never tell" Murphy that hot? I don't know, but she can make up for that with what her character does... Let the debate begin. Is it going to work? Will it be any good? Too many questions that we can't answer just yet. In my opinion, the blueprints are solid and very intriguing. All that's left is for the production team and cast to not f**k-up the project...
	LOU LUMENICK - TORONTO - Eminem mostly keeps his clothes on, but "8 Mile" boasts a steamy sex scene that had tongues wagging at its first public showing here.His character, Rabbit, and his girlfriend, played by Brittany Murphy, do the nasty - in graphic ways that push the movie's probable R rating to the limit - while standing up in the metal-pressing plant where Rabbit works. In two other scenes, Rabbit surprises couples by walking in on them during the act - and one of the lusty participants is his mother, played by Kim Basinger. Eminem does drop his own drawers at one point - to moon the audience during a rap competition.
	Hip-hop star Eminem has a slight problem with the upcoming release of his new movie 8 Mile - he's terrified to watch it. The outspoken rapper, who stars in the semi-biographical flick alongside Kim Basinger and Brittany Murphy, admits he's petrified of how his first major film role will be received. And he believes he's got one critic who will definitely prove hard to please - himself. He says, "Acting is a very scary thing. People in the industry have told me, 'It's great man, I think it's going to be a big movie.'" "Truthfully, I don't know what it's going to do. I've seen the trailer, but I don't know what the rest of it looks like because I didn't watch any playbacks - I'm scared to death. I can't get past the fact of seeing myself on-screen. It's a horrifying thing."
	TORONTO: Prankster on 8 MILE & Miramax's Edit of SHAOLIN SOCCER!!! Hey folks, Harry here... Well it seems that Eminem's Film debut has finally been shown to audiences in Toronto and the first review is interesting, if not a rave, definitely a review that notes that the film is at the least interesting. Eminem is 'Elvis'? While I like some of Eminem's music now, since I was educated by an enlightened one... I think the time for drawing comparison's between Eminem and ELVIS - well, I think that time will never come. ELVIS was the KING - Eminem exists in a period that no longer has royalty of any kind, merely images crafted and formed, marketed and processed. The KING is dead, and we'll never see his like again - Unless BRUCE CAMPBELL counts! Also here, you'll see a look at Miramax's edit of SHAOLIN SOCCER - and it is another RAVE! So here ya go...Hi, Prankster here. Just thought I'd send you a couple reviews from the TIFF. First up: 8 MILE, the Eminem-starring pseudo-autobiographical (or - is it?) flick directed by Curtis Hanson. This was apparently a rough cut, though it played out pretty well to me. Itís set in the titular district of Detroit, located between the downtown core and the suburbs - if you're thinking "caught between heaven and hell", you're on the right track. I seem to have bad luck with gritty movies about life in the hood at the Toronto FilmFest - last year I missed the first ten minutes of Training Day. This year I missed the same amount of 8 Mile. Oh well. From what I understand, it started with Eminem's character, Jimmy 'B. Rabbit' Smith, taking the stage at a Hip-Hop 'Battle', in which two competitors improvise talking trash at each other in rhyme. Rabbit freezes up and gets booed off the stage, which puts him off busting beats for a while. Too bad, as that's his only real talent in life, not to mention his only escape from his run-down neighbourhood, lousy job on an assembly line, and horribly self-absorbed white-trash mother (Kim Basinger, doing a southern accent for some reason, even though the movie is set in Detroit). The rest of his time is spent hanging with his pals, including best bud Future (Mekhi Pfeiffer) and hanging on another guy who keeps dangling the chance to record a demo in front of his nose. Now there's been great 'early buzz' on this movie. Maybe we should be suspicious, since we were the first real audience to see the flick, and that 'buzz' could only be from studio insiders. Some might also hold that it's a giant PR spin on Mr. Mathers' part, a 'poor-little-me' flick that tries to lionize him as a working-class hero. Then again, maybe it's an honest and unflinching look at what it's really like in this kind of neighbourhood. I'd heard all this battered around beforehand, but what I wasn't prepared for: This is an Elvis movie. I'm not kidding. The characters even refer to Rabbit as 'Elvis', disdainfully. But this thing has that plot where the guy from the wrong side of the tracks sings (OK, raps) to express himself as he tries to get out from his intolerable situation. And this movie comes pretty close to being a hip-hop musical, too. Rabbit raps just to get himself through the day sometime - there's an especially neat scene early on where he starts riffing off of the strains of "Sweet Home Alabama" drifting out the window of his house, where his mom is "gettin' it on" with her equally trashy boyfriend. Nicely played character scene, though there aren't too many more like it as the film progresses. Still, some of the raps seem like they were improvised off the cuff by Eminem, which is pretty damn impressive. Ultimately, the film won me over by avoiding the usual "Boyz N the Hood" clichÈs. Rabbit gets spotted by a police car while engaging in vandalism; Rabbit runs afoul of a local gang; Rabbit has a screwup buddy who pulls a gun at the wrong moment. But none of these setups play out the way you'd expect them to. There's also a bit where Rabbit comes to the defense of a gay guy, which is either an ironic gag or a blatant bit of spin control on Eminem's part (or I guess it might be his way of 'explaining' his seemingly homophobic tendencies - the scene does draw a distinction between 'gays' and 'faggots', for whatever that's worth - ) As you might be gathering from this review, I enjoyed the film (the climax is a wowser, even if you have no interest whatsoever in rap or hip-hop - in fact, it almost seemed like an attempt to introduce rap to an audience of novices at times). However, I still have the sneaking suspicion that this is at least in part a vanity project for Eminem. He gives a very natural performance, but he's obviously playing himself, or a variation thereof - I can't help thinking that he'd have a lot of trouble adapting to a different role. He only really shines during the rap sequences, the rest of the time he's underplaying like crazy - his eyes downcast, his voice a mumble. While the character's obviously been beaten down by life, there are a few points where he should have turned on the charisma and didn't. I don't think he even cracks a smile at any point. Again, this modest guy seems like a projection of how Eminem wants us to see him, deep down, but it doesn't jibe with his self-promoting onstage persona. That said, I'm quite happy to see him do another movie, and there's no denying this is a pretty emotional flick in and of itself. I don't think the critics are going to take to it much, but itís an authentic and surprisingly warmhearted movie. Like Rabbit baring his soul (in song, natch) at the end of the flick, daring us to find something wrong with who he is, the movie deals with the many challenges it's going to face from audiences by addressing them head-on. When all is said and done, that makes it a hard movie to dislike.
	Eminem's next creative endeavor, the movie "8 Mile," was shown as a work in progress Sunday night at the Toronto International Film Festival. '8 Mile' received well at Toronto film fest By Adam Graham / The Detroit News TORONTO--While Eminem was busy managing his anger in Auburn Hills on Sunday night, his film "8 Mile" was enjoying its first public screening as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. Even though he couldn't be on hand as a witness, it's safe to say the reaction from the capacity-plus crowd at the Elgin Theatre would be enough to sideline any anger for some time. Director Curtis Hanson (Academy Award winner for "L.A. Confidential") and producer Brian Grazer (Academy Award winner for "A Beautiful Mind") were on hand to introduce the film, presented as a "work in progress." (The finished product, due Nov. 8, will have some slight tweaking of the sound and picture from the version screened Sunday.) Finished or not, no one seemed to care. The audience -- which included actors Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Dustin Hoffman and director/writer Joel Schumacher -- burst into spontaneous applause during a handful of Eminem's on-screen rap battles, and it earned a hearty round of approving yelps at its close. That made Grazer and Hanson rest a bit easier. "We were extremely nervous coming in, and we came out happy and exhilarated," Grazer said. The reaction "took my breath away," Hanson said. "A lot of the little stuff that we tend to obsess over -- the lighting, the sound, the technical stuff -- what I learned tonight is that none of that matters to an audience. It's the actors that bring them into the picture." And for his part, Eminem seemed to do that for the audience. "He can definitely act," says Tom Ashworth, 36, of Toronto. "The credibility was there, you felt that realness. It's him that's up there on screen." Film critic Jeffrey Wells agrees. "(Eminem) has a real presence," says Wells. "You can tell that he's got a lot of anger in him, but I like anger in artists. It makes them more interesting." "8 Mile," which takes place in the span of one week in 1995, tells the story of Jimmy "Bunny Rabbit" Smith Jr. (Eminem), an aspiring rapper who lives in a trailer park with his mother (Kim Basinger) and young daughter, and dreams of ditching his dead-end life and riding rap to the top. Filmed entirely in Detroit, Highland Park and Warren, some believe the storyline rings too close to Eminem's own life to be a fictitious role. Not that there's anything wrong with that. "I don't know if it's a case of art imitating life, or what," says David Kwinter of Toronto, "but it's very daring for him to take on this role. It opens him up to a lot of criticism." "8 Mile" wasn't the only film with Michigan ties shown at the Toronto festival. Flint native Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine," which takes a harsh look at gun control in America while examining our country's paranoia-laden psyche, received standing ovations when it screened Saturday night and Sunday morning. Saturday's "Columbine" screening was its North American premiere; the film was a part of May's Cannes Film Festival, where Moore walked away sharing best director honors. Canada's kind taking to the film will make the road that lies ahead for "Columbine" easier, says Moore, whose first film "Roger & Me" took best film honors at the Toronto festival in 1989. "The reception we received here was incredible. We thought Cannes was incredible, but this was raucous." "Bowling for Columbine" will appear of screens nationwide in October. Detroit cult hero Bruce Campbell (star of the "Evil Dead" films) saw his new project, "Bubba Ho-tep," premiere before a rabid group of fans at midnight Saturday. Campbell participated in playful question and answer sessions before and after the film, in which Campbell portrays Elvis Presley and battles a soul-stealing ancient Egyptian zombie. Meanwhile, Michigan will continue to be a presence at the festival, which wraps up Sunday. The movies "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" (a documentary on the legendary studio band the Funk Brothers) and "MC5 -- A True Testimonial" will screen on Wednesday, while Rochester native Karen Moncrieff's film "Blue Car," will be shown Tuesday and Thursday.
	Marshall “Eminem” Mathers and Curtis Hanson are an extraordinary yet magnificently complementary pair. Eminem burst upon the popular music scene in 1999 with a kind of rap never heard before: controversial, ragged, gutsy, nihilistic, letting everything hang out – in short, a bold declamation of the white underclass experience. But where Eminem’s songs are raw and battle-scarred, Hanson’s films are sublimely elegant and polished. His L.A. Confidential, a Festival Gala presentation in 1997, was an exquisite tour-de-force genre film, original in its masterful revitalization of archetypes. In 8 Mile, Hanson intersects with Eminem, who made his name as a brilliant manipulator of the conventions of urban rap, which decree the feeble-minded shall perish and the verbally dextrous will vanquish. Each of these two great visionaries does what he does best in this utterly riveting film. 8 Mile plays off Eminem’s rise to fame with its frank, no-holds-barred insights into the making of a hip hop legend. Here, the rap champion portrays the charismatic Jimmy “Rabbit” Smith, a trailer park punk who pulls himself up by his bootstraps. From Rabbit’s first confrontation on the stage at the ultra-pitiless Shelter, we move through different aspects of his life: his disputes with his single, unemployed mother (the magnificent Kim Basinger), the prejudices of his boss, the shifting loyalties of his friends. When cool kitten Alex (Brittany Murphy) rolls in, declaring her faith in his talent, things seem to take a turn. But Rabbit’s success ultimately rests in the pure, naked skill of his rhythms and words, his ability to give better than he gets and in his overwhelming sense of his own identity. Hanson’s film gets beneath the skin of the man who revolutionized the face and sound of rap and seduced a generation, analyzing his complex emotions and his responses to the hard knocks he has had in life. Hanson leaves nothing to be desired in a revealing and captivating film where skill, style and power confirm both director and star as masters of their arts.
	Eminem fans mob the Elgin TORONTO -- Despite assurances that Eminem would not be attending his own movie premiere, fans mobbed Yonge St. last night outside the Elgin Theatre, nevertheless. The star-studded crowd, for the first-ever showing of 8 Mile, included the usual list of suspects from Jake Gyllenhaal t o Sharon Stone. The director, Curtis Hanson, who directed L.A. Confidential, addressed the audience prior to the screening and mentioned that he had a superstitious good-feeling about the restored and renovated Elgin Theatre. As he pointed out, one crucial scene in the movie is set in the shell of the formerly beautiful Michigan Theatre, which is now a parking lot. 8 Mile is the name of the street that divides Detroit from its suburbs. Eminem acquits himself nicely in this debut and for a newcomer he gets a hell of a great love scene with Brittany Murphy. Kim Basinger is also in 8 Mile in the role of Eminem's mother. His fans are going to love it.
	Eminem makes "8" count by LOU LUMENICK TORONTO - Eminem's movie debut is a rousing "Rocky" with rappers - but that barely begins to describe the astonishing crossover appeal of "8 Mile." "8 Mile" had its world premiere as a "work in progress" Sunday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, where a largely under-30 crowd queued around the block in a late-summer heat wave for hard-to-come-by tickets. Eminem , who is touring, was not on hand for the screening. Nor were Kim Basinger, who plays his mother, or the rest of the cast. The film was introduced by director Curtis Hanson, who said the color and sound effects were still being worked on. "But being a little raw is not inappropriate under the circumstances," he said, confessing some nervousness to the packed house, which included directors Joel Schumacher and Sydney Pollack and actors Sharon Stone and Jake Gyllenhaal. Raw or not, two hours later the consensus was Hanson and Eminem had pulled off a triumph of in-your-face filmmaking. You can't take your eyes off the controversial white rapper, while the gritty and often hilarious film speaks to an audience well beyond his core constituency of alienated teens. "I adored him and the movie," gushed one fortysomething woman from New York. Filmed on crumbling locations in Eminem's hometown of Detroit, "8 Mile" (the title refers to a road sepa rating the ravaged city from its suburbs) is loosely autobiographical, depicting the rapper's early struggles. Abandoning his pregnant girlfriend, Jimmy "Rabbit" Smith moves back in with his hard-drinking mom, who lives in a trailer park with his young sister and her latest boyfriend. He fights with the mother, the boyfriend and the neighborhood bullies - but mostly Rabbit dreams of becoming a rap star. Endlessly teased by the mostly black crowd, the self-described "trailer trash" chokes when he gets a chance to show his stuff. By the time Eminem finally lets loose with poetic invective in a showdown with a rival - a finale that Hanson ("L.A. Confidential" and "Wonder Boys") cannily shoots like a boxing match - the audience was on its feet cheering. Though the screenplay attributed to Scott Silver is a classic uplifting tale of an underdog triumphing over adversity, it's easy to become so involved in "8 Mile" that you forget you're watching a movie. By placing his rage in a social co ntext, "8 Mile" represents an attempted image makeover for Eminem, who has been accused of posturing nihilism, misogyny and homophobia. In one fascinating scene, Rabbit defends a homosexual co-worker who's being verbally attacked by another rapper. "Enough with the gay jokes," Rabbit says. "Paul's gay - and you're a f- - - -t." While Eminem's critics may not appreciate such distinctions, "8 Mile" is destined to become the most talked-about movie of the season.
	BOX OFFICE PROPHETS - After watching the extras on the Wonder Boys DVD, extras that featured the city of Pittsburgh quite a bit, the amount of care and detail that Curtis Hanson put into his movies was quite obvious. His two works that preceded 8 Mile were complete films that felt so real that they border on being documentaries. Hanson continues his level of excellent filmmaking in 8 Mile, a story about a young man living in Detroit whose only way out of the slums is through rap. And while a small part of it is formulaic, the film is powerful, extremely well made, extremely well written, extremely well acted and is one of the best movies to come out this year. Much will be said about this film and its oft-controversial star and real-life rapper, Eminem. Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, will most likely be the focus of the media and what gets this film attention. He will also likely be the reason why many young people will see the film. The good news is he is worth every penny. Eminem plays Bunny Rabbit, a white kid living in the white part of the Detroit 'hood. He's just broken up with his girlfriend and is forced to stay with his well-meaning but helpless mother, played by Oscar winner Kim Basinger. Rabbit's only way out of the 'hood is to use his talents as a rapper, something at which he is infinitely gifted. Rabbit has to try to make it to the big life but quickly learns that he has to get the small life in order first. The relationship between mother and son is quite compelling. On one hand, you have a son who often despises his mother, but his feelings are created by his mom's unwillingness to act and help herself. And while they butt heads all the time and he shows nothing but resentment for her, his rap name (yes, Bunny Rabbit is not his real name) is his mother's nickname for him when he was a child. This is one of the many relationships in the film that control Rabbit's life. All are genuine and real and all have a lot emotion behind them. We see Rabbit as a friend, a brother, a son and a father. It is these relationships that keep the movie grounded and keep it real. The true strength of 8 Mile is how real it is. Curtis Hanson's Detroit is as authentic as Antoine Fuqua's South Central LA was in Training Day. Hanson washes the suburbs of Detroit in a steely blue palette that is both cold and haunting. You never for a second get the feeling that you are in a Hollywood back lot 20 minutes from four different beaches. You are there, always there, as the camera remains close and very personal. In a trailer, you feel the claustrophobia of the physical trailer and the characters' lives. The streets feel like they belong to a long-forgotten and abandoned town. Hanson here creates not the stereotypical "urban city", in which a Glock 9 lurks around every corner and people get shot for breathing. Hanson creates a sympathetic Detroit, a city that is a black hole in which people run the danger of wasting their lives. A city that constantly eats itself up. It is a city that makes you believe the characters' desperation and need for change. This aspect of the city contributes to making the characters believable. Rabbit's desperation to leave his city is not out of a fear of being shot in a drive-by or the fear of being beaten by corrupt cops. Rabbit wants to leave out of fear of the normalcy and drudgery of the real life he has lived. It is something that many people can relate to and it is something that makes the film hit home even more. At the core of the film is something everyone can relate to, regardless of whether they have an extraordinary talent. The characters are real and therefore the story becomes very personal; it is a story to which everyone can feel a connection, even though they might have nothing in common with the main character. Hanson also doesn't marginalize or trivialize his characters. Never does he fall into stereotypes or pre-conceptions. The fact that Rabbit is white is never an issue unless it naturally feels that it would be. Even when it does come up, it is not addressed head-on and is only treated as a minor point, which it actually is. While it might seem that it is a story of a white rapper trying to make it, it is not portrayed that way. Rabbit has much more to him than being a white rapper. The supporting cast are more than his black friends. Never does the film fall into racial stereotypes; in fact, there is a clever twist in the film that plays an anti-race card, so to speak. And while the so-called villains of the piece are your clichéd bad guys in black, they are more there to serve as instigator than narrative driver. But ultimately, the characters feel real because they are not stereotyped and are written with honesty and sincerity. The final, and most surprising, terrific aspect of the film is the authenticity of the culture in which it lives. The slang is real, the clubs are real, the lives lead by the people in the film are real and the music is absolutely dead on. It is truly a great piece of work how Hanson managed to keep that aspect of the film authentic. It never feels Hollywood. While the music itself is very true to rap in 1995, it is the free-style rapping that is mind-blowing. The rapping feels like it is spontaneous and never feels scripted and is used very cleverly in the film. Hanson has certainly created a great film. Because of its authenticity and portrayal of rap culture, I don't hesitate to say that it is his best film. It is a film of true grit by a director who lets his actors and film take center stage and not himself. The film is filled with an extraordinary performance by Eminem who goes beyond playing himself and gives a truly great performance that sees him show a vulnerable and truly gritty side, not the show he puts on at awards shows and at press conferences. There is much more to his role than an autobiographical portrayal and he delivers extraordinarily. His performance is at the core of what will surely end up being one of the best films of 2002.
	CALENDARLIVE - But can he act? Eminem goes to Hollywood in '8 Mile,' by way of the hard-knock streets of Detroit. It's a tale of how the worlds of rap and film accepted each other on their own terms. By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer They ushered the Detroit kid into the Hollywood chamber of power and sat him down on a crimson couch beneath perfectly framed photographs of grinning movie stars. They told him he, too, could be a star and waited for him to be giddy or nervous or even visibly interested. Instead, the kid shrugged and said, "Yeah, OK." That was in January 2000, when Eminem was a music sensation but not yet assured the twin titles of world's top rapper and American pop culture's most incendiary young artist. His music and videos were theatrical, but there was really no reason to believe he could carry a movie. And it was arguably ludicrous to assume he could shoulder a gritty drama written, directed and filmed by people with exactly zero background in the rap world. Somehow, though, that is exactly what happened. The bold result, a film called "8 Mile," should make Eminem a cultural force of newfound potency and, just maybe, put him in a place where he won't have to explain himself anymore. "8 Mile," which opens Nov. 8, has in Eminem a star who has been a cannonball in the pool of pop music, hailed by some as a Lenny Bruce of street music and reviled by others as just another rusty nail on the cultural landscape. It also has 57-year-old director Curtis Hanson, who was praised for the confident craft of "L.A. Confidential" and "Wonder Boys" but came to "8 Mile" with a creeping worry that he might be a clumsy tourist in rap. Its screenwriter, meanwhile, is the man who co-wrote and directed the 1999 film "The Mod Squad," a failure so bruising that, when asked what in "8 Mile" most reflects his voice, he cited the scene where the main character vomits backstage because he is so afraid of his audience. The trajectory of the "8 Mile" project was set by the fame of Eminem, which could have sent the movie in one of two directions -- either a commercial-minded farce with a hit soundtrack or a film that uses its built-in allure to take some chances. The course it took, which started two years ago in the office of producer Brian Grazer, is clearly the latter, and that makes "8 Mile" the most intriguing music-star film in years. "I remember he was sitting here and he would not look at me, he would only look straight ahead," recalls Grazer, whose movie, "A Beautiful Mind," won the Oscar for best picture of 2001. "When you bring people in, at least they usually look at you or at least eventually talk. He just didn't." Grazer had set the meeting after catching a glimpse of Eminem on an MTV awards show. The producer had for years been meeting rappers, from Slick Rick to Tone Loc, looking for a star for a "meaningful" hip-hop film, the one who could do for hip-hop youth what "Blackboard Jungle" had done for rock 'n' roll kids and "Saturday Night Fever" for disco kids. Why did Grazer think the unblinking white kid on his couch was the one? Especially considering Eminem has been excoriated for lyrics of venom, homophobia, violence and lewdness? "I never had any doubt," Grazer says. "Just seeing him on TV for six seconds I knew he could act. And then when he came here and I was with him, I couldn't keep my eyes off him.... And this movie is going to change the way a lot of people look at him." The success of the film awaits the critics and box office, but screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and a Puerto Rico convention of hip-hop DJs have created positive buzz. If it does succeed, "8 Mile" will be an unlikely bridge between Hollywood and Detroit that also illuminates on film how issues of race are bending to the backbeat of hip-hop. Not quite a biography. "8Mile" is not the life story of its star, but it flirts so closely with the path of young Marshall Bruce Mathers III to his stardom as Eminem that the movie feels like a rap remix -- tweaked but with the same beats. The movie follows one week in the life of Jimmy "Rabbit" Smith who, at the start of the film, is forced to move into a trailer with his boozy mother. The film's title is the roadway that separates that trailer in the poor, white rural community from the poor, urban black areas where Rabbit finds the comfort of hip-hop culture. Rabbit is an outsider on both sides of 8 Mile. For Hanson, the film is as much about geography as biography, a map of Detroit's despairs. The director spent time in the city in the 1980s researching a project on child drug dealers and, when he saw the "8 Mile" script written by Scott Silver, he remembered how young Detroiters seemed like kids at play in a condemned factory. A number of top directors vied for "8 Mile," but Grazer says he tapped Hanson because he "is an American director who can tell an American story, and that's what this is." Hanson was blunt, though, when he went to Detroit to meet Eminem: He would sign on if the star committed to a serious youth film, a "Rebel Without a Cause," not a two-hour music video. "That's where our bond started," Hanson recalls. "He saw that I was going to demand of him a performance that felt sufficiently and emotionally true to carry a movie without the crutch of the hit tunes, a high bar for someone their first time out." The script had been written by Silver, who was coming off "The Mod Squad" but was able to win over Grazer's people with a script he had written about Richard Pryor. Once hired, Silver, who describes himself as a 38-year-old white guy from Malibu, went out and bought $700 in rap CDs. More educational were grainy videos of Eminem in 1990s rap "battles," the swaggering rhyme competitions that trace back to rap's 1970s birth in New York. The battles would become the signature scenes in "8 Mile" and make for the moments of music-as-urban-escape that propelled "Saturday Night Fever," "Flashdance" and "Purple Rain." Silver's script was flexible as far as setting, but Hanson was resolute that Detroit be the locale for the story and all filming. In "Wonder Boys," Hanson used the bridges of Pittsburgh to convey the film's life passages and in "8 Mile," he wanted Detroit to be the harsh sidewalk that can't stifle the weeds of youth and art. To capture the grit, the director tapped cinematographer Rodrigro Prieto, who surveyed Mexico's mean streets in "Amores Perros," and Philip Messina, production designer for the narcotics epic "Traffic." He also cast locals as rappers, factory workers and even as Rabbit's sister. The more difficult task, however, was preparing the novice Eminem. Six weeks of rehearsal were scheduled, much of them in a Detroit riverfront hotel with auditioning actors in an exercise to hone the rapper's nascent craft. For emotional compass points, Hanson showed Eminem "Raging Bull" and "Romper Stomper," the Australian film of violent youth, as well as "Killer of Sheep," Charles Burnett's 1977 gem about Watts street life. Eminem "soaked everything up like a sponge," Hanson says. And the sponge felt wrung out by the process. "Working with Curtis was like going into film boot camp," Eminem says. "It was long, grueling and difficult. But I think the end product speaks for itself." If Hanson educated Eminem in film, the rapper made the director a rap fan of nuance. "The New York way of saying 'yo' is different than the Detroit 'yo' -- it comes in the sentence in an entirely different place. Did you know that?" Hanson also recognized the advantage of setting "8 Mile" in 1995 when the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry was still fought with words. The characters reference the rivalry in the way rock fans used to debate Stones vs. Beatles. "There was a sort of innocence still," he says. The pair huddled often to plan Rabbit's battle rhymes, and Hanson noted Eminem's ability to consume information and return it in clever and dizzying ways. In his downtime, the rapper hunched over a notebook, scrawling lyrics. Hanson could hear Eminem's music seeping through the dressing room walls as the rapper toiled on a new recording for the final scene. The finished product, "Lose Yourself," is Eminem's latest radio hit. "Has there ever been a movie where the star wrote the song on the set and recorded it for the movie's ending?" Hanson asks. "It's like everything was heading toward that song, the character ends up in that place." You better lose yourself in the music The moment you own it you better never let it go, oh You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow Cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo -- "Lose Yourself". No more 'white culture'? The song "Lose Yourself" is pumping out of the stereo speakers on the balcony of Jimmy Iovine's Santa Monica office as the music mogul calls an assistant to track down "American Skin." Iovine says the new book by Leon E. Wynter and its race analysis resonate in "8 Mile." "American Skin" says the nation's melting pot is now on high simmer because of cultural forces, among them the brawn of rap in art and commerce. The book predicts "white culture" will soon be as meaningful to young people as a typewriter repair manual. Iovine, co-chairman of Interscope Records -- the label for Eminem's three albums -- and an executive producer of "8 Mile," wanted to see that on film. Eminem's ascension began in earnest when an Interscope intern handed Iovine an amateur recording of the Detroit rhymer and Iovine passed it on to Dr. Dre. Iovine knows that this new chapter in Eminem's career will only enhance the rapper's value to Interscope (career artists and multimedia stars are desperately sought tonic in the ailing music industry) but he says "8 Mile" also has cultural insight. Rappers have become movie stars, but rap in film is most often a soundtrack for urban comedy and crime. "8 Mile" seeks rap truth, Iovine says. "The power of hip-hop is in these race changes, and you see these changes beginning in the 1990s with the kids in this movie," Iovine says. "It's about class, not race, and hip-hop is one of the reasons." Rabbit is well aware of race and class in "8 Mile." In a clever word concoction, Rabbit's crew is called Three-One-Third. The reference is to Detroit's 313 area code but also to the crew's membership: Three blacks and Rabbit, who is the one-third -- it's a sly joke on the 19th century legal view that blacks counted as "one-third" of a white person. In late 20th century Detroit, Rabbit is the fraction. "The whole film made me strip my ego back down to the guy I was in '95," Eminem says. "Everything from the schooling in acting to the broke world that Jimmy lived in was strange. It brought me back to actually feeling like the guy I was." When Rabbit finally wins over the black crowd at the Shelter club battles, it's by showing that he is closer to them, in class status and life experience, than some of the black kids under the same roof. There is a metaphor there for Eminem's success. He is the first white artist to become an airplay staple on urban radio with predominantly black audiences. "That is what the film is about, that is what hip-hop is about, and that is why Eminem is who and what he is today," Iovine says. "This movie is about Detroit, but what happened there is happening everywhere." Detroit, warts and all. Eminem is not Rabbit. "Rabbit shows a much more narrow range of emotions than I do.... Jimmy seems to be a more serious, almost depressed and volatile guy," Eminem says in an interview conducted via e-mail. "We don't get to see Jimmy's lighter side in the film." That may be true, but Eminem's Detroit is the same city where Rabbit runs, and that alone makes it unusual for Hollywood. According to the Michigan film office, "8 Mile" appears to be the first major Hollywood film shot entirely in Detroit. "And it captures the whole intensity of it, the real Detroit, the burned-out Detroit, out in the bitter cold," says Xzibit, the Detroit-born rapper who plays one of Eminem's rhyming rivals. "It ain't pretty, but it's real." The realities of Detroit were apparent in the making of a scene that has Rabbit and friends engaging in vigilante redevelopment. In the scene, word is out that the city won't raze an abandoned house that has been the site of a child rape, so Rabbit and his buddies decide to torch it themselves. Upstairs, dousing drawers with gas, Rabbit sees an old photograph of the long-gone residents, a smiling father, mother and their kids, all in their Sunday best. He stares with longing at the image as flames surge behind him. Hanson added the scene to the script when a local resident shared the real-life account of a neighborhood arson with the same grim motivation. City officials at first refused a permit for the filmed arson -- their worry was that destroying an eyesore in a movie might hurt the image of the city as opposed to, say, leaving the building standing. "It is," Hanson says, "pretty crazy if you think about it." There was another lesson in the making of the scene: The film's art department, heeding Hanson's standing orders of authenticity, scoured Detroit flea markets and thrift stores to find a photo of a Detroit nuclear family, from the 1970s. They could not find a single one. The photograph in the movie was staged; it's a fake family in vintage clothes. Hanson says he shares the anecdote only to outline the challenges facing young people in Detroit and lack of "traditional signposts for many of them, things such as church and family." He left the city, though, inspired by the people he met and with a deep affection for them. "8 Mile," he says, "is a valentine to the people there." There are plenty of return valentines for Eminem on both sides of 8 Mile Road these days and he still lives in the city. Crowds often mobbed him during the filming. That's a far cry from the outsider Marshall Mathers. "8 Mile" hopes to take filmgoers on that same journey of understanding, but Iovine reminds again that Rabbit and Eminem are not the same person. The main difference? The music executive answers immediately: "Thirty million albums, worldwide."
	BOX OFFICE: Starring Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy and Mehki Phifer. Directed by Curtis Hanson. Written by Scott Silver. Produced by Brian Grazer, Curtis Hanson and Jimmy Iovine. A Universal release. Drama. Rated R for strong language, sexuality, some violence and drug use. Running time: Running time: 126 min. Rap artist Marshall "Eminem" Mathers first exploded onto the music scene in 1999 with an insurgent sound that was nihilistic, fearless and controversial, yet also cerebral and playful. In short, he was one of those dangerous artists, and he quickly got under people's skin. Eminem was a full-throated expression of white underclass rage by a young man with an extraordinary gift for words. Director Curtis Hanson, who in "L.A. Confidential" and "Wonder Boys" showed an extraordinary gift for images and stories, has fashioned "8 Mile" as an entertaining fictional biography of Eminem's emergence in the poor part of Detroit. Jimmy "Rabbit" Smith (Eminem) is a trailer park kid who aspires to be a great rap artist. When he tries to perform at a local club, where he's the only white rapper among scores of talented blacks, he freezes with fear. "8 Mile" is about how Rabbit transcends that fear by confronting his life with his unemployed mother (Kim Basinger), his duplicitous friendships, his somewhat expedient relationship with Alex (Brittany Murphy), and his endlessly frustrating boss. When most performers make movies loosely based on their lives, they generally portray themselves as misunderstood artists, as Prince did in "Purple Rain." The pleasant surprise of "8 Mile" is that, despite the conventional structure of Scott Silver's script, Curtis Hanson hasn't made a film about Rabbit transcending his underclass roots, but embracing them instead.  As he's shown in his videos, Eminem possesses a furtive instinct as a performer. In "8 Mile," he shows the guarded intelligence of a young man who's ready to pounce at the strike of a match. Kim Basinger also gives a rubbed-raw performance as a woman whose expectations from life have been deeply diminished. Mehki Phifer and Omar Benson Miller, in secondary roles, also provide a lyricism that helps "8 Mile" go the distance.-Kevin Courrier